Japanese Gamers decide on the best 100 games ever made. They fail.

[schild]

I don't even know how it's possible to fail, but they did. Oh and these are Famitsu readers. I find it eerie that the Famitsu readerbase are just as, if not more, retarded than our Game Informer brethren. Oh, and yes, I've added comments in line.

1. Final Fantasy X (2001) - I mean, seriously. Over IV and VI? What?
2. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
3. Dragon Quest III (1988)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (2004) - It's good. Yea, but #4? Really?
5. Machi (1998)
6. Final Fantasy IV (1991)
7. Tactics Ogre (1995)
8. Final Fantasy III (1990)
9. Dragon Quest VII (2000) - NO.
10. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

11. Dragon Quest V (1992)
12. Far East of Eden 2 (1992)
13. Sakura Taisen (1996)
14. Dragon Quest IV (1990)
15. Final Fantasy V (1992) - Hahahaha. Hooooo. Japan you are clever.
16. Xenogears (1998)
17. Dragon Quest II (1987)
18. Sakura Taisen III (2002)
19. Kingdom Hearts (2002)
20. Streetfighter II (1992)


21. Super Mario Bros (1985) - I think they meant to say SMB3. Surely, they did.
22. Final Fantasy VIII (1999) - Hork.
23. Toki Meki Memorial (1995) - For those that don't know I think this game has 8 sequels/prequels, 3 side projects, and a chibi version.
24. Final Fantasy IX (2000)
25. Final Fantasy VI(1994)
26. Metal Gear Solid 3 (2004)
27. Valkyrie Profile (1999)
28. Chrono Trigger (1995)
29. Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
30. Dragon Quest (1986)

31. Zelda 3 (1991)
32. Final Fantasy X-2 (2003)
33. Resident Evil (1996) - It says best games, goddamnit. RE4 was simply better. Deal with it.
34. Dragon Quest VI (1995)
35. F-Zero (1990)
36. Sakura Taisen II (1998)
37. Mother 2 (1994) - Yes.
38. Mother (1989) - Double Yes.
39. Virtua Fighter (1994)
40. Dragon Quest 5 (PS2 remake) 2004

41. Zelda Windwaker (2002)
42. Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001)
43. Animal Crossing (DS) 2005 - No point if you already have Animal Crossing on the list.
44. Tales of the Abyss (2005)
45. Ogre Battle (1993)
46. Legend of Zelda (1986)
47. Virtua Fighter 2 (1995)
48. Mysterious Dungeon 2 (1995)
49. Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
50. Metal Gear Solid (1998)
51. Pokemon Red and Green (1996)
52. Y's 1 and 2 (1989)
53. Romancing Saga (1992)
54. TokiMeki Memorial (PC Engine) 94
55. Super Robot Taisen Alpha (2000)
56. Resident Evil 2 (1998)
57. Tales of Eternia (2000)
58. Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei II (1990)
59. Shin Megami Tensei (1992)
60. Final Fantasy II (1988)

61. Super Mario World (1990)
62. To Heart II (2004)
63. Final Fantasy (1987)
64. Puyo Puyo (1992) - Before Tetris?
65. Family Stadium Pro Baseball (1986) - Brilliant inclusion on the list. This is RBI baseball to us westerners.
66. Wizardry (1987)
67. Hokkaido Murder Mystery (1987)
68. Fire Emblem (1994)
69. Super Mario Kart (1992)
70. Dynasty Warriors 4 (2003)

71. Monster Hunter (2004)
72. Best Play Pro Baseball (1988)
73. Grandia (1997)
74. Resident Evil 4 (GC) 2005 - This is what happens when people think "best" means "most influential." Try moving this up 50-70 spots.
75. Gran Turismo 4 (2004) - Three was simply the more fun game.
76. GTA: Vice City (2004)
77. Super Monaco GP (1990)
78. Torneko Mysterious Dungeon (1993)
79. Tales of Destiny (1997)
80. Streetfighter 2 Turbo (1993) - There's no reason for this to be below Street Fighter II

81. Dynasty Warriors III (2001)
82. Final Fight (1990) - Nice.
83. Monster Hunter Portable (2005)
84. Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) - 84?!!? Eighty Fucking Four? Feh feh feh feh feh feh.
85. Minster Hunter G (2005)
86. Mysterious Dungeon 2 (2000)
87. Kung Fu (1985)
88. TokiMeki Memorial (Saturn) (1996)
89. Tales of Destiny II (2002)
90. Kamaitachi No Yoru (1994)


91. Sakura Taisen IV (2002)
92. Tales of Rebirth (2004)
93. Sim City (1991)
94. Saga 2 (1990)
95. Pro Baseball Family Stadium 87
96. Tetris (Gameboy) (1989)
97. Secret of Mana (1993)
98. Gradius (1986)
99. Super Mario Bros III (1988)
100. Resident Evil IV (PS2) 2005

Goddamn, that is just the worst list ever. But maybe we should make our own top 100. That'd be an interesting experiment. I mean, Final Fantasy 10? FINAL FANTASY X? Fucking hell.

THe games they forgot (and it makes me sick):
any Metroid
any Castlevania
TONS AND TONS of European and western games.

Any list with RE4 at the bottom and  FFX at the top is broken and cannot be fixed.

[Trippy]

1. Final Fantasy X (2001) - I mean, seriously. Over IV and VI? What?

I agree, huh? I mean I enjoyed the game immensely but FF VII had better characters and was genre defining (3D RPGs) which the readers seemed to favor (see below).

19. Kingdom Hearts (2002)

WTF?

22. Final Fantasy VIII (1999) - Hork.

Or to quote 99% of Squall's dialog on the game "..." (yes I know that's a Japanese RPG "idiom" but geez try to use it more sparingly).

33. Resident Evil (1996) - It says best games, goddamnit. RE4 was simply better. Deal with it.

Yeah but Resident Evil was genre defining so I can understand why they ranked it higher. Case in point:

39. Virtua Fighter (1994)
[...]
47. Virtua Fighter 2 (1995)

VF2 was a better game in every way over VF.

Edit:

66. Wizardry (1987)

I'm surprised Ultima(s) is not in the top 100 but Wizardry is given how much the FF's and other top down Japanese RPGs copied from it (them).

[Merusk]

19. Kingdom Hearts (2002)

WTF?

Kingdom Hearts was a damn good game.  It deserves to be top 20, imo.  Definatly above most of the FF games.  FFVII, while I have fond memories of it, and had good systems isn't #1 or #2.  FFX is in no way a top-5 game, but was fun and somewhere in my top 20.

See, "best games" should have to do with gameplay and game mechanics.  RPGs, and particularly well-written ones, get too much bump from people who get involved in the stories and characters.  Not to say that story isn't an important piece of an RPG, but the emotional investment bumps them too much in most folks mind, imo.  The same is true of MMOs.  Go or Chess is a better GAME than, say, Everquest, but more people would vote for EQ because of the emotional investment.

[ahoythematey]

The japanese never were that big on the Metroid series, so I'm not too surprised there.  Can't say I'm surprised either that an abortion of a game like Saga 2 made the list, since they fucking love that series for God knows why.  SMB3 being at 99 is an enormous oversight, though.  Not sure what kind of crack they are smoking to place it so poorly, but then they do have FF X-2 on the list so it must be potent.

[Sairon]

See, "best games" should have to do with gameplay and game mechanics.  RPGs, and particularly well-written ones, get too much bump from people who get involved in the stories and characters.  Not to say that story isn't an important piece of an RPG, but the emotional investment bumps them too much in most folks mind, imo.  The same is true of MMOs.  Go or Chess is a better GAME than, say, Everquest, but more people would vote for EQ because of the emotional investment.

In my opinion it's about the whole experience. If the story is good enough to get me emtionaly invested then that earns the game a lot of points. FFVII is my favorite game of all times, a lot because of the fact that it got me very emotionaly involved.

[schild]

Sairon, pretty much nailed my definition. The total package. Not genre-defining or importance to the industry. That's a different list.

Top 100 Best Games
Top 100 Influential Games

Two very different things.

[Velorath]

Personally, I'd take every mention of Dragon Quest off the list.  Really, they just aren't "Top 100" good.  And as mentioned at least half those FF games shouldn't be on there either.  I'd take MGS 2 off the list also.  I certainly wouldn't have it top the first MGS.  Fuck the original Metal Gear for the NES deserves to be on there more than MGS 2 does.

From the date given of 1987 I assume the Wizardry they're referring to is the NES port.  I'd leave off any ports of PC games since the PC versions are better.  Better take SimCity off the list too.

Only a handful of games from the 80's on the list and Kung-Fu is one of the games that makes the cut?  No Kid Icarus, Trojan, Rygar, Ikkari Warriors, Metroid, Castlevania 2, Metal Gear, Goonies 2, or any number of other great games from the NES days?  I don't expect any love for pre-NES stuff from the Japanese, but how the fuck could they overlook the NES era so badly?

This list is pretty much broken.  Looks like the Japanese are circle-jerking over way too many RPG's.

[Kail]

Only a handful of games from the 80's on the list and Kung-Fu is one of the games that makes the cut?  No Kid Icarus, Trojan, Rygar, Ikkari Warriors, Metroid, Castlevania 2, Metal Gear, Goonies 2, or any number of other great games from the NES days?  I don't expect any love for pre-NES stuff from the Japanese, but how the fuck could they overlook the NES era so badly?

Just to be argumentative, you could say that the older games are worse than the newer ones by almost any objective criteria (graphics, sound, control, amount of times controller flung at screen while screaming "GODDAMMIT JUMP YOU FAT WHORE", et cetera).  Better for their time, unquestionably, but if you put all these games in a capsule and shot them off to a Twin Earth where nobody wrote any games, I think you could pretty confidently predict that most of them would think Metal Gear Solid was better than the original Metal Gear.

That said, what is that sitting at #5?  Machi?  What is that? I Googled it and got a Kareoke machine and a webcomic.  Please, for the sake of my fucking sanity, tell me they are referring to the webcomic.

[schild]

I put together a list of games I would have the top 100 before I went to sleep. In no particular order really. Well, except for the first 10. Those are pretty much in order.

Planescape: Torment
Deus Ex
Resident Evil 4
SMB3
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy IV
Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit
Super Metroid
God of War
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda 2
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Simcity 2000
Metroid
Yoot Saito's Sim Tower
SMAC
System Shock 2
Thief 1
Thief 2
Civilization II
Total Annihilation
Disgaea
Soul Calibur
Rampart
Mother/Earthbound
Fallout
Baldur's Gate
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Digital Devil Saga 1/2
Final Fantasy VII
Riviera
Wolfenstein 3d
Contra
Castlevania 1
Castlevania 2
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Phoenix Wright
Trace Memory
Killer Instinct
Rez
Soul Calibur II
Super Street Fighter II: Turbo
Mortal Kombat III
Tekken: Tag (obligatory, I'm not the biggest fan but I can appreciate the millions of reasons it should be somewhere on the list)
Dead or Alive 2
Golden Axe
Tony Hawk Pro Skater II
Ninja Gaiden: Black
Doom
Silent Hill
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 'x'
Warcraft II
Diablo II
Diablo
Starcraft
Major Mud
Tele Arena
Altered Beast
Trade Wars
Cannon Fodder
55 Flashback: The Quest for Identity
Double Dragon
Life Force
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Wizards and Warriors
Wizards and Warriors 2: Ironsword
Sonic the Hedgehog
Unreal Tournament
Katamari Damacy
We <3 Katamari
Tetris
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade)
The Journeyman Project

[Velorath]

Only a handful of games from the 80's on the list and Kung-Fu is one of the games that makes the cut?  No Kid Icarus, Trojan, Rygar, Ikkari Warriors, Metroid, Castlevania 2, Metal Gear, Goonies 2, or any number of other great games from the NES days?  I don't expect any love for pre-NES stuff from the Japanese, but how the fuck could they overlook the NES era so badly?

Just to be argumentative, you could say that the older games are worse than the newer ones by almost any objective criteria (graphics, sound, control, amount of times controller flung at screen while screaming "GODDAMMIT JUMP YOU FAT WHORE", et cetera).  Better for their time, unquestionably, but if you put all these games in a capsule and shot them off to a Twin Earth where nobody wrote any games, I think you could pretty confidently predict that most of them would think Metal Gear Solid was better than the original Metal Gear.

You could say that, but it would be complete bullshit.  There are a lot of old games that are simply better than most of the new shit in the same way that checkers is still one of the best board games despite being old and simplistic.  If you sit put Kid Icarus and MGS 2 in front of me I'd pick Kid Icarus every time.  That game is simply more fun to me.  There's something to be said for fun, basic games that don't try to cram some "epic" storyline down your throat.  Some times I'd rather just play a basic football game as opposed to one where I'm trading, drafting, and setting the price of the food in the stadium.  So yeah, sometimes the old shit is better.

Edit:  Schild, if you're going to include PC games than you'd have to turn it into the Top 200 or something.  I mean really, no X-com, Pirates!, or Master of Orion on your list?

[Yegolev]

That list is too stupid to read.  Schild makes all of my arguments and I generally agree with his list.  Not only do I think the Famitsu people are on the Squenix payroll now, I think the title would have been more accurately translated as "Unsorted List of 100 Games Blurted Out By 100 Random People When We Jumped From Behind a Bush and Yelled 'NAME A VIDEO GAME!'"  In any case, it seems to be more about a combination of genre-defining and Squenix dickslurping.

FFVIII was bad and should not be on this list.  My wife loved it, but she doesn't know anything about games.

[Sairon]

Hard part about making a list is remembering all the goodies, you're almost guaranteed to miss some. A bunch which hasn't been mentioned which would be on my list.

Syndicate
Street gangs - also known as River city ransom
World Cup on NES - best soccer game ever
Punch out
Lemmings
Worms - I really liked the first game
Max Payne
Dungeon Keeper

[ahoythematey]

I loved FF8 

I hated it the first time I played it though, so I wouldn't put FF8 on any "best of" list; a favorites list though would be a welcome home for it.

[Yegolev]

Sure it's hard to remember all of the good ones, but including the wrong ones will really jump out at you and leaves little excuse.

It's fine if some people like FFVIII.  It does have some things I like, but not too many.  Especially when VII and IX are right there.

[Samwise]

I'd put American McGee's Alice on that list somewhere.

[HaemishM]

The fact that RE4 isn't even in the top 10 makes that list invalid.

[Margalis]

Well...they like the RPGs in Japan.

Tactics Ogre in the top 10 makes me happy, best console SRPG game ever made.

Some representative of FFIV, V and VI belongs on a list. Maybe even all 3. 8 though? No fucking way.

It's not a bad list of you correct for the huge RPG bias.

[Strazos]

Because I wholeheartedly agree with Schild in this thread (which is rare)...I feel I wanna make a list too, in no particular order. I have no idea if this will hit 100. I'm not even sure some of these games can really be "best," but they will be a lot of the games I got a lot of enjoyment out of (I suppose some will be horrible, but that should make good discussion, or something)

In no particular order (because seriously, ordering them is crazy):

Baldur's Gate (+ TotSC expansion)
Baldur's Gate 2 (+ ToB expansion)
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale 2
Planescape Torment
Fallout
Fallout 2
Gunstar Heroes
General Chaos
Sonic and Knuckles
SMB3
Kohan: Immortal Soverigns
TMNT 2 (either NES or Arcade)
Madden 95 (the one where you could kite the entire opposing team with a good running back, aww yeah)
Road Rash 2
Deus Ex
Quake
Tribes
FF7
Final Fantasy Tactics
RE2
Super Smash Bros. (or SSB melee if you like)
Earthbound
NHL 96
Super Metroid
Legend of Zelda
LoZ: Ocarina of Time
LoZ: A Link to the Past
Warcraft 2
Half Life
Max Payne (1 or 2, take your pick)
Mega Man X
FF4 US (though I remember HATING the ending)
Armored Core

Damn, it's actually pretty tough to think of a lot of games you liked without any of the materials in front of you.

[Trippy]

It's fine if some people like FFVIII.  It does have some things I like, but not too many.  Especially when VII and IX are right there.

Triple Triad was fun.

[Velorath]

My list:

Pitfall
Pac Man
Donkey Kong
Dig Dug
Gauntlet
Paperboy
Kid Icarus
Castlevania 2
Contra
Duck Tales
Elevator Action
Goonies 2
Ikari Warriors
Legend of Zelda
Metal Gear
Metroid
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Rygar
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Track & Field
Ghosts & Goblins
Trojan
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star 2
Mutant League Football
Master of Monsters
Road Rash 2
Shining Force
Shining Force 2
Sonic the Hedgehog
Streets of Rage
Strider
Dune: The Battle for Arrakis
Shadowrun (SNES)
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VI
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Street Fighter II Turbo
Super Metroid
Super Star Wars
Goldeneye
Twisted Metal 2
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Colony Wars
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Tactics
Gran Turismo 2
Metal Gear Solid
Silent Hill
Tetris
God Of War
Shadow of the Colossus
Burnout 3
Kingdom Hearts
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
Soul Calibur
Resident Evil 4
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Wing War
Star Wars (arcade game)
Breakout
Space Harrier
Astrosmash
Oregon Trail
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
Battle of Olympus
Gain Ground
San Francisco Rush
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
X-Men (arcade)
Dungeons & Dragons (arcade)
Altered Beast

Computer games from here out:

Pool of Radiance
Baldur's Gate
Planescape: Torment
Knights of the Old Republic
Master of Orion 2
Pirates!
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Diablo
Diablo II
Warcraft
Starcraft
Kings Bounty
Wizardry
Fallout
Fallout 2
SimCity
The Sims
Dues Ex
Flashback
Lemmings
Syndicate
X-Com

[Strazos]

Looking at these lists makes me remember how many games I forgot.

How the fuck did I forget Streets of Rage 2 and Knights of the Old Republic? (among other things)

[Yegolev]

No one, here or in Japan, mentioned Bushido Blade while at the same time listing off other vs fighting games.  Everyone is once again eligible for The Purge.

[Hoax]

Games I have personally played a ton, and loved.  Which is all I can speak to, wtf do I know about the "best" video games of all time or somesuch grandious bullshit?

no order:

Diablo1
Tribes1
Quake2
AvP
C&C
C&C Red Alert
Total Annihilation
Warcraft
WarcraftII
Battlezone
BattlezoneII
10six
MarioKart (SNES)
Zelda (NES & SNES)
Megaman (as a whole the series deserves an entry, so many hours of mindless fun)
Mario 3
Mario World (SNES -think that was the name)
Goldeneye (N64)
FFII (the one where you have to fight yourself at one point, and you go to the moon)
FFVI (the one with kefka and mog)
FFVII (the one w/ Sephiroth)
Chrono Trigger
Fallout
Ogre Battle
FF:tactics
Mechwarrior series from Activision
Soul Caliber
Killer Instinct
Marvel Vs Capcom
Power Stone
Puzzle Fighter
NHL2002 (ps2)
NCAA series from EA
Madden series from EA  (omgz sports r bad!)

I think that about covers it, I'm sure I missed something but whatever.

[Stephen Zepp]

Man...saw only 1 Masters of Orion (that game was on every computer I owned for more than 11 years, either 1 or 2), Star Control II (currently available as open source FYI!) which I just played again last week, only one mention of X-Com, no mention at all of any of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, ANY of the Ultima series 1 through 6 (where do you think exactly the idea of iso-tile/iso games came from in the first place?), or pretty much anything I've ever enjoyed.

I've not played one of the games on that first list--oh, wait, they did have Wizardry (and yes, that was an excellent game).

[Trippy]

I've not played one of the games on that first list--oh, wait, they did have Wizardry (and yes, that was an excellent game).

Not really surprising if you don't play console games, particuarly Japanese-style RPGs. There are a handful of games on that list that originated on personal computers or in the arcades that made it into console form but that list is all about Japanese console gaming (you can tell from the dates they aren't referring to the original versions). And the selection of games on that list also shows us why the Xbox (and now the Xbox 360) never made inroads into Japan (ignoring the form factor issues). With a few exceptions we don't make the kinds of games they like to play.

[Megrim]

I think it's pretty much a given that with these sorts of lists you have to account for cultural bias (though i still don't agree with you Schild =p). I looked at that list and to me it looked like the top 40 were all the same bloody game. Gah.

[Velorath]

Man...saw only 1 Masters of Orion (that game was on every computer I owned for more than 11 years, either 1 or 2), Star Control II (currently available as open source FYI!) which I just played again last week, only one mention of X-Com, no mention at all of any of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, ANY of the Ultima series 1 through 6 (where do you think exactly the idea of iso-tile/iso games came from in the first place?), or pretty much anything I've ever enjoyed.

I've not played one of the games on that first list--oh, wait, they did have Wizardry (and yes, that was an excellent game).

I thought about putting Heroes of Might and Magic up there, but it just didn't cut it for me.  As far as Ultima goes those would fall more under the "most influential" catagory for me rather than best games.

[Yegolev]

I think it's pretty much a given that with these sorts of lists you have to account for cultural bias (though i still don't agree with you Schild =p). I looked at that list and to me it looked like the top 40 were all the same bloody game. Gah.

Even accounting for cultural bias, that list is just bad.  As you noticed, it is primarily slurping FF and its progeny.  Even Dragon Quest VIII is Final Fantasy IV with only four characters and Toriyama art; all of those games even use the same blue background for menu screens, for fuck's sake.

Also, maybe I am somehow wrong, but Sonic the Hedgehog simply is not better than either Super Mario World or SMB III.  I admit to having a mild anti-SEGA bias, though.

[Jain Zar]

As a counterpoint, here were the top 50 games chosen by UK readers in Retro Gamer magazine

50 Gunstar Heroes
49 Galaxian
48 Street Fighter 2 Turbo
47 Dizzy
46 Sabre Wulf
45 Impossible Mission
44 Outrun
43 Speedball 2 Brutal Deluxe
42 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
41 Chaos
40 Skool Daze
39 Ghosts n Goblins
38 Half Life
37 Resident Evil
36 Super Mario Brothers 3
35 Head Over Heels
34 Dungeon Master
33 Secret of Monkey Island
32 R Type
31 Boulder Dash
30 Rainbow Islands
29 Civilization
28 Chuckie Egg
27 Street Fighter 2
26 Goldeneye
25 Wizball
24 Super Mario Brothers
23 Paradroid
22 Knight Lore
21 Lemmings
20 Frontier: Elite 2
19 Tomb Raider
18 Halo
17 Super Mario 64
16 Zelda A Link to the Past
15 Grand Theft Auto Vice City
14 Tetris
13 Super Mario Kart
12 Bubble Bobble
11 Sonic the Hedgehog
10 Pac Man
9 Doom
8 Sensible Soccer
7 Jet Set Willy
6 Space Invaders
5 Zelda Ocarina of Time
4 Final Fantasy 7
3 Manic Miner
2 Super Mario World
1 Elite

If anyone really wants it, ill post the back 50 too.

What can we see from this mainly UK list in a magazine devoted to old school games?
A shit ton of variety for one.  Very few sequels in this list and a large amount of genres covered.
Also a decent amount of Arcade and Sinclair Spectrum titles.
I don't agree with all their choices, but its certainly a shit ton better than the Famitsu list.
Elite is the only game in the top 10 I haven't played, and that's mostly since its so primitive now.

My personal top 10?

1 Phantasy Star 2
2 Ultima 5
3 Fallout 2
4 Advance Wars 2
5 AD&D Curse of the Azure Bonds
6 Pathway to Glory
7 Defender of the Crown
8 Star Wars (Atari Vector Coin Op)
9 Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries
10 Master of Orion 2

Ok, my own list is mostly comprised of games in a franchise of some sort, but all the games on the list are ones I adore and play the everloving shit out of to this very day.  The next 15 games would mostly be arcade titles like Galaga, Tron, Rygar, Raiden 2, Life Force, and seminal titles like Wing Commander, Doom, and such. 

[schild]

Putting Elite at the top of the list is misunderstanding the word best.

Best does not equal the amount it affected future games. I'm sorry, but if a game comes out in a series that's better, it doesn't matter how good the first one was. Just like RE4 goes above any other RE on a list of Best RE games.

It's cool and hip and edgy to be retro and put that shit above Half-Life 2 and other titles, but it's also dead wrong. It just makes you look like the fool.

Almost all magazines do it. And fuck them.

[Velorath]

Putting Elite at the top of the list is misunderstanding the word best.

Best does not equal the amount it affected future games. I'm sorry, but if a game comes out in a series that's better, it doesn't matter how good the first one was. Just like RE4 goes above any other RE on a list of Best RE games.

Sorry, still like RE2 the best.

[Wolf]

The thing is if you want to work retro games in there, you have to compare them to what was on the market at the same time. Otherwise any top 100 list will consist of mainly games that came out in the last 5-6 years and all the others will be out just 'cause they're so dated. Anyway, let's see if I can throw something together. No particular order, just games I think deserve to be in a top 100 and have played more than 100 hours (MMOGs excluded, no expansions if there are some they're considered 'the game'):

Fallout 2
Quake
Quake 3
Doom 2
Heroes 2
Heroes 3
Civilisation
Dune 2
Masters of Orion 2
Duke Nukem
Warcraft 2
Diablo
Starcraft
Diablo 2
Warcraft 3
Neverwitner Nights (Oh, the Persistent World Modules. Fuck DDO)
Baldur's Gate
Carmageddon
Grand Theft Auto 3
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
KOTOR
Need for Speed
Need for Speed 3 (hrmm I believe it was 3)
NFS Hot Pursiut
NFS Underground
The Incredible Machine
Whacky Races (Racers? - I owned with the Moose)
Grim Fandango
Monkey Island 1 and 3
Mortal Kombat 2 and 3
Cadilacs & Dinosaurs
Samurai Shodown 2 or 3 (can't remember which one was it)
Samurai Shodown 4
That awesome game where you shot aliens with a plastic gun at the arcade close to my school :P

I'll add if I remember something

[Velorath]

The thing is if you want to work retro games in there, you have to compare them to what was on the market at the same time. Otherwise any top 100 list will consist of mainly games that came out in the last 5-6 years and all the others will be out just 'cause they're so dated.

Again, I disagree with that line of thinking.  I think the one thing a lot of older games still have over a lot of the newer stuff is replayability.  Most games these days I beat and then don't play again, whereas most of my old computer, NES, and Atari games were played off and on for years.  Many newer games might offer better stories, or might be a better "experience" the first play through, but I think a lot of the older titles are better games.

[Jain Zar]

Hell, just look at my job.  We have 2 arcade games in the break room.  Golden Tee Golf and a combo Ms Pacman Pac Man, Galaga machine.
The combo machine that is 3 20+ year old games gets played the everliving fuck out of, something no other machine we have ever had at work does.
People still love and adore Ms Pac Man and Galaga.

As well they should.

[Strazos]

Man...saw only 1 Masters of Orion (that game was on every computer I owned for more than 11 years, either 1 or 2), Star Control II (currently available as open source FYI!) which I just played again last week, only one mention of X-Com, no mention at all of any of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, ANY of the Ultima series 1 through 6 (where do you think exactly the idea of iso-tile/iso games came from in the first place?), or pretty much anything I've ever enjoyed.

I've not played one of the games on that first list--oh, wait, they did have Wizardry (and yes, that was an excellent game).

Out of every game you listed (explicitly and implied), I've only seriously played 1 of them - Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I think I putzed around with SC2 and X-Com once before, but it was decades after their release (prolly iwthin the past year), and they were so dated I just couldn't get into them. I have the same feeling for the old-school first-person PC RPGs, like the old Gold Box games - I just can't take that shit at this point.